


Waiting

by as_with_a_sunbeam



Category: 19th Century CE RPF, Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: 1854, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Washington D.C.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 05:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/as_with_a_sunbeam/pseuds/as_with_a_sunbeam
Summary: A long awaited reunion, half a century in the making...





	Waiting

Eliza batted at her nose with annoyance. Something was tickling her, a feather light touch brushing over the bridge. Her swat put it off for a moment, but the sensation returned. Finally, begrudgingly, she peeled open her eyes. The sight before her stole the breath from her lungs.

Her Hamilton.

Sometimes, late at night, she would fret that she had forgotten his face. She would close her eyes and force herself to remember every freckle, every laugh line. And now here he was before her, looking just as he had when he left her that morning half a century ago. A smile curled on his lips.

“Hello.”

He was kneeling beside the bed, his chin resting on the edge as he looked at her. He brushed his fingertip against the bridge of her nose one last time, an old, familiar gesture, and then he grasped her hand tightly. His hand felt warm and solid against hers. She looked down at it. Her eyesight was nearly gone, but she could see his hand on hers clearly, even the smudge of ink on his thumb that never seemed to wash away. She looked back at his beautiful eyes, sparkling in the late afternoon sun that filtered through the window.

“Betsey?” He pressed in his soft, lilting voice.

“I used to pray for this,” she said. “Every night. For decades. I’d pray for you to come to me.”

“I know.” The mischievous smile fell from his face, but his eyes remained sparkling and full of love. Those eyes, oh, those eyes, just as she remembered.

Her heart stuttered in her chest, pain seizing her for another long, awful moment. Her eyelids felt heavy, and her body ached intolerably. She felt every one of her ninety seven years. 

“How could you come to me now?” she hissed. Now, when she was blind and deaf and so very worn.

“I’ve been waiting,” he said simply.

“Waiting?”

Waiting for her to be useless and spent? What good was she to him now? What use would her young, vibrant, brilliant husband have for a weary old woman?

“For you to be ready.”

“I was ready. I’ve been ready. I was ready as soon as you left me,” she insisted.

He shook his head. “You had so much more to do. Bringing up our babies. Looking after the orphanage. You were so brilliant, my love.”

“I tried to make you proud.” 

“You did.” His eyes went even brighter. “I’m so very proud of you.”

“Are you talking to me, Mama?”

Eliza forced her eyes away from the beloved image of her husband to find her younger daughter in the doorway, holding a steaming bowl of soup.

“You must eat some broth today. We need to keep up your strength. Just like the doctor said, a few spoonful’s, even if you’re not hungry.”

Eliza heard Hamilton’s breath catch beside her. She looked back at him, watching him watch their younger daughter, grown now into a strong, sturdy woman. “My beautiful girl,” Hamilton whispered. “Just like her Mama.”

Eliza smiled at him.

He grinned at her. “You see now, why we had to name her for you?”

She nodded to humor him. How he’d doted on their baby girl. He’d have spoiled her rotten had he lived long enough.

“Mama? Mama, are you all right?”

“Of course, dear heart,” she assured, although her voice sounded faint and distant to her ears.

“What are you looking at?”

Eliza kept her gaze on her husband beside her, more real to her now even than her daughter, living and breathing on her other side.

“I’m here. I’m waiting,” he assured her, kissing her knuckles tenderly. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Soon, now, I think,” she breathed out, letting her eyes drift shut. “Very soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little piece I found in my drafts that I thought was actually pretty good. (I am working on the next chapter of Life Hereafter, I promise!) 
> 
> Thanks so much for reading! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!!


End file.
